Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to the field of computers and computer devices. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a computer device and a method for isolating untrusted content.
Description of Related Art
There is an on-going need to protect computer devices from malicious content, as is well recognised in the field of computer security. In particular, it is desired to protect computer devices from malicious content which may be introduced by actions of the user, such as downloading a file or executing an application. In the related art, it is known to isolate untrusted content by limiting the resources of the computer device which are accessible by the untrusted content. As one example, it is known to perform content isolation by using virtual machines, which emulate a physical host computer.
A difficulty arises in that many of the current mechanisms for content isolation are relatively insecure, in that they still allow malicious content to reach important resources of the computer device. Also, many known implementations of content isolation are relatively resource intensive, such as by needing a relatively large amount of memory, disc space or computer processing power.
As a further difficulty, content isolation often requires a relatively skilled and knowledgeable user of the computer device. Therefore, it is quite difficult for an ordinary user to implement content isolation in a way which is safe, effective and reliable, yet also simple and intuitive. In some cases, content may need to be adapted in advance for the purposes of isolation, by being specifically prepared in a manner capable of being isolated, which increases costs and makes content isolation less likely to be implemented in practice.
The example embodiments have been provided with a view to addressing at least some of the difficulties that are encountered in current computer devices and computer networks, whether those difficulties have been specifically mentioned above or will otherwise be appreciated from the discussion herein.